1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to parquet flooring. More particularly this invention relates to an assembly of wood inlays that form a parquet panel which can be interleaved with other similar panels to form a parquet floor. Still more particularly, this invention relates to the parquet panel described above wherein the panel is assembled with the wood inlays accurately spaced to accommodate to the expansion and contraction of the wood. Still more particularly this invention relates to the parquet panel described above wherein an athletic floor formed of the parquet panels supported by a DIN certifiable subfloor will provide a DIN certifiable athletic floor.
Wood expands and contracts with changes in temperature and humidity. To provide for the expansions and contractions of wood flooring, space is provided for the floor to expand and contract at the perimeter of the floor or between the components of the floor. In quality hardwood floors such as athletic floors, it is imperative that the flooring does not buckle under conditions of maximum expansion or develop large gaps between the elements during periods of severe contractions.
Parquet floors which are built up of many small strips of wood have many seams between the strips of wood and the range of expansion and contraction of each strip of wood is small. Consequently, it is possible to fit the elements of a parquet floor rather closely and still provide an adequate seam width to accommodate the expansion and contraction of the strips.
2. Description of Related Art
Traditionally, strip and parquet floors are laid one strip at a time using shims to set the spacing between the wood strips. In some instances panels made up of wood inlays and having regular geometric shapes, usually regular polygons, are formed on a backing and laid as tiles or modules. Heretofore, the art has not provided a parquet flooring panel that when interleaved with a multiplicity of such panels provides a parquet floor with the appearance and properties of individually laid strips and wherein the seams between panels is not discernible in the finished floor.
Heretofore, parquet athletic floors have not proven to be satisfactory. The parquet floor that the Boston professional basketball team played on for many years was notorious for dead spots and uneven surface qualities. Todays quality athletic floors are subjected to DIN tests and certified to meet DIN standards. The inventor""s own patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,401 to Shelton, which is incorporated herein by reference, teaches a DIN certifiable parquet athletic flooring system. The wood strips that provide the inlays that form the parquet flooring pattern are laid one at a time which is a time consuming and costly process.
The teachings of the Shelton patent serve to make clear the tests that are made to achieve DIN certification and will serve as an enabling disclosure of a DIN certifiable subfloor that is suitable as a subfloor for the laying of the panels of this disclosure to form a DIN certifiable parquet athletic floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,338 to Bourgade teaches a method of laying a parquet flooring wherein parquet elements that have xe2x80x9ca right angled parallelepipedic peripheryxe2x80x9d are mounted on a toothed base such that the base of one element will interlock with the base of an adjacent element to form a floor of such adjacent elements.
U.S. Pat. No 5,325,652 to Feder teaches the steps of adhering strips of stone to flexible backing and attaching the backing over a curved surface and thereafter grouting the open seams.
While the above disclosed patents teach or suggest some of the concepts underlying the instant invention it can not be fairly said that the prior art teaches or suggests the parquet flooring panel of this invention, or the former employed to achieve the requisite precision needed for the employment of such a panel in a parquet athletic floor.
A parquet flooring panel formed from a multiplicity of elongate wood inlays arranged in multiple staggered rows so that each inlay is spaced apart from adjacent inlays a preestablished distance and the ends of the panel are staggered at each row and the inlays are joined by tape facings to form a single parquet flooring panel such that each panel is alignable and interleaveable with an adjacent panel to form a continuous parquet flooring pattern wherein the margins of the panels are not discernible in a finished floor.
And, a process for forming the parquet flooring panel comprising: the steps of: a) positioning the wood inlays on the surface of a cylindrical former having indices for locating the inlays along the cylinder and around the cylinder so that the ends of the inlays are staggered for alternate rows and so that the long edges of the inlays lie along straight line elements of the former, b) applying at least one tape facing to the inlays so that the assembled inlays are joined together to form a panel. and c) removing the assembled panel from the former.